Marinotti is obviously the most loathesome person, but this schlock reads as if it were written by a smart-ass 12 year old and would not have made it into my high school paper. Not at all funny and aching to sound clever. My god, how did he ever get hired?

Marinotti is obviously the most loathesome person, but this schlock reads as if it were written by a smart-ass 12 year old and would not have made it into my high school paper. Not at all funny and aching to sound clever. My god, how did he ever get hired?

Meh, I got no problem with this story. It'll never happen, but it's cute and full of optimism which is what spring training is all about: optimism

PeteWard

02-13-2007, 10:50 PM

Simply put, it's childish and is not funny. I did not laugh,chuckle,smirk,guffaw snicker,giggle or snort once. Not even a goddamn chortle!

:cool:

Brian26

02-13-2007, 10:50 PM

writer of any kind in a major American newspaper.

Not while Susanna Homan is still getting paid by the Bright One.

IlliniSox

02-13-2007, 10:54 PM

Meh, I got no problem with this story. It'll never happen, but it's cute and full of optimism which is what spring training is all about: optimism
I second that Meh. Not funny, but didn't ruin my breakfast.

SouthSide_HitMen

02-13-2007, 11:00 PM

http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/9541/217vk9.jpg

"Actually, Scott Podsednik is the worst, though some White Sox Nation fans consider me the worst writer this side of Mariotti."

Yeah sorry... you're a sports journalist for one of the top newspapers in the country, in a city full of sports teams... and you write this? Any inspiring journalist should be sickened that HE has a job and they don't.

chaerulez

02-13-2007, 11:15 PM

Mike Downey tries way too hard to be funny. He rights columns with stupid one liners all the time. He needs to stick to writing conventional columns, at least he won't get laughed at for his 3rd grade writing style.

Vernam

02-13-2007, 11:36 PM

Geez, tough crowd . . . Sometimes Downey seems to phone it in, but he's okay in my book. At least he usually doesn't take the I'm-too-cool-to-care approach of shmucks like Lincicome. And c'mon, there were some funny lines in there, like the one about Clemens's contract stipulating he doesn't need to arrive for any game until there are two outs in the 9th inning. :smile:

He's damn sure no Mariotti. :?:

Vernam

102605

02-13-2007, 11:41 PM

That was not that bad at all. Kinda funny.

thomas35forever

02-13-2007, 11:45 PM

What the hell is that? I would convert to Cubism if all of this happened.

Vernam

02-13-2007, 11:50 PM

What the hell is that? I would convert to Cubism if all of this happened.There's no truth to the rumor that Picasso was a Cubist . . .

http://static.flickr.com/67/182842112_50a59e58fe_m.jpg

:redneck

Vernam

DumpJerry

02-13-2007, 11:54 PM

Simply put, it's childish and is not funny. I did not laugh,chuckle,smirk,guffaw snicker,giggle or snort once. Not even a goddamn chortle!

I never realized that there was such a demand to get Sammy Sosa back? I thought he was persona non grada at the friendly confines.

AuroraSoxFan

02-14-2007, 11:21 AM

I didn't have a problem with what he wrote. But he really should give up the wannabe funny man act and just stick to commenting on sports, if that is what you want to call it. Least we know his imagination is in perfectly good health between this and his newly dreamed up cub curse.

skobabe8

02-14-2007, 11:35 AM

Simply put, it's childish and is not funny. I did not laugh,chuckle,smirk,guffaw snicker,giggle or snort once. Not even a goddamn chortle!

:cool:

Not even a CHORTLE?!

BainesHOF

02-14-2007, 12:43 PM

Downey is incredibly boring. He's easily the dullest sports columnist in town. It's hard to believe he's in the position that he's in, but I guess he does fit into the staid Tribune's corporate culture.

SoxxoS

02-14-2007, 12:46 PM

He needs to go.

INSox56

02-14-2007, 12:46 PM

I actually thought it was mildly humorous.

Dan H

02-14-2007, 12:54 PM

The column is funny in a few spots but wasn't great. As one person noted, he phoned this one in. The column does little for me, and a writer working for a big city newspaper should do better than this. Nothing outright offended me, but this looked like it took little effort.

soxtalker

02-14-2007, 12:58 PM

Downey is incredibly boring. He's easily the dullest sports columnist in town. It's hard to believe he's in the position that he's in, but I guess he does fit into the staid Tribune's corporate culture.

Give the guy a break. It's a boring time of the year. The Bears are over, and the Bulls and Blackhawks are probably not going very far. ST is just about to start, but there's really nothing new to talk about. Maybe many fans would prefer no articles to fluff columns like this or rehashes of the same stories from the past couple of months. The writers have to find something to fill the space, but this probably isn't terribly exciting for them either. The stories and columns should get more interesting in a few weeks.

mshake10

02-14-2007, 01:08 PM

Give the guy a break. It's a boring time of the year. The Bears are over, and the Bulls and Blackhawks are probably not going very far. ST is just about to start, but there's really nothing new to talk about. Maybe many fans would prefer no articles to fluff columns like this or rehashes of the same stories from the past couple of months. The writers have to find something to fill the space, but this probably isn't terribly exciting for them either. The stories and columns should get more interesting in a few weeks.
Word. This was great. I especially loved this line:
A request from their sponsors at 7-Eleven results in the White Sox starting a game with Detroit at 7:11 in the morning. A paid crowd of 498 is there to see the Sox clinch the division championship.
Hey, if it means the playoffs, you'd wish it would happen too!

SOXPHILE

02-14-2007, 01:12 PM

Meh....Column didn't get any more of a reaction out of me than that. This is exactly what I expect the guy to write. I've said it before: Mike Downey writes soft hitting, easy going, pre-chewed pablum columns. What Jay Leno is to late night comedy/talk shows, and what Eric and Kathy are to radio, Mike Downey is to columns in the sports section.

kittle42

02-14-2007, 01:15 PM

I haven't read the column, but let me guess what you're all whining about. Something "funny" in a degrading way about the Sox, some Cubs optimism fluff, etc.

You people are like a broken record.

mshake10

02-14-2007, 01:22 PM

I haven't read the column, but let me guess what you're all whining about. Something "funny" in a degrading way about the Sox, some Cubs optimism fluff, etc.

You people are like a broken record.
A mix of both. No real alligence is shown. This one probably angered them the most:
Sammy Sosa returns to Chicago, slamming his 12th home run of the young season and 600th of his career to beat the White Sox. His bat is retrieved for Cooperstown, with a Texas Rangers official vehemently denying that Sosa's bat was found to contain a wood-enhancement substance.
This one too:
Freddy Garcia no-hits the Sox in a game at Philadelphia, saying afterward that the Sox wouldn't be in last place right now if they only had some pitching.

PKalltheway

02-14-2007, 02:41 PM

Geez, you guys are taking this way too seriously. I didn't really have a problem with it. Hell, I would love to see a White Sox-Cubs World Series come October.

White Sox Randy

02-14-2007, 03:43 PM

That was not that bad at all. Kinda funny.

Yes. It's just lighthearted stuff. Why would anyone get worked up over that ? Some of these people would bitch in heaven.

BainesHOF

02-14-2007, 04:04 PM

Give the guy a break. It's a boring time of the year.

Downey is boring all the time. I'd rank him the worst columnist, sports or otherwise, in Chicagoland in my lifetime.

PeteWard

02-14-2007, 11:12 PM

I haven't read the column, but let me guess what you're all whining about. Something "funny" in a degrading way about the Sox, some Cubs optimism fluff, etc.

You people are like a broken record.

I started the thread as a response to a bad, juvenile writing style, not because he said anything good or bad about the Sox or Cubs. There was no "whining" and no "broken record".

pudge

02-19-2007, 07:25 PM

Yes. It's just lighthearted stuff. Why would anyone get worked up over that ? Some of these people would bitch in heaven.

I think it's because there are plenty of talented people out there who could earn a spot in a major metro newspaper writing columns and Downey has the writing quality of someone from a small market newspaper at best, so I totally understand the complaints. If he wasn't consistently lame, he could get a pass once in a while, but Downey and Slezak are amongst the most offensive writers to me because they are wastes of space and completely do not deserve their jobs. Sorry, rant over.